Abstract
Oxygen is required for the completion of almost all known metazoan lifecycles, but many metazoans harbour abilities to withstand varying degrees and periods of hypoxia. Caenorhabditis elegans, one of the most popular model organism is extensively used as a model for the study of hypoxia and anoxia biology and it has been found that this nematode is capable of tolerance to varying degrees of hypoxia. Considering the extremely high diversity of nematodes, the effects of low oxygen concentration and mechanisms of adaptation to oxygen depletion differ among species. In this study, we used a simple assay to examine anoxia tolerance in four nematode species, including three free-living and one plant parasitic nematode. We found that the plant parasitic nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus can survive more than 14 days under anoxic conditions. Comparisons of behaviour during anoxia induction and the repertoire of oxygen sensation genes among the tested species suggested the existence of different oxygen sensation systems between B. xylophilus and C. elegans, which quickly introduce suspended animation in response to oxygen depletion to survive long-term anoxia.
Highlights
Almost all metazoa require molecular oxygen for the completion of their lifecycles [1], tolerating varying degrees and durations of hypoxia
We examined the effects of low oxygen concentrations using a simple and inexpensive method to generate anaerobic conditions in four distinct nematode species, including the model nematode C. elegans and three other developing laboratory models; Pristionchus pacificus [13], Panagrolaimus superbus [14], and Bursaphelenchus xylophilus [15]
Survival of four nematode species under anaerobic condition were recorded for 1–14 days (24–336 hours) using mixed-stage nematodes (Fig 1A, S1 Table)
Summary
Almost all metazoa require molecular oxygen for the completion of their lifecycles [1] (some rare exceptions have been reported [2]), tolerating varying degrees and durations of hypoxia. Metazoans occurring in the soil, deep sea or highlands can tolerate lower oxygen concentrations than those living on the Earth’s surface [1]. The free-living nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, inhabiting a high-organic matter environment, is a popular model organism for a wide array of biological and medical studies. Certain degrees of hypoxia (0.5% or 0.51 kPa oxygen) were reported to extend the lifespan of C. elegans [5]. Under lower oxygen concentrations (anoxia), the majority of nematodes died within 96–144 h [3]
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